Broken Branches
by Taneya
Summary: A collection of aborted ideas, explanations, character studies, and more. Includes original characters, crossovers, and ranges from angst to comedy. A little something for everyone.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Broken Branches is my idea, but Naruto is not.

Broken Branches

Broken Branches is a new idea I'm trying out, and I believe it has potential; it's a collection of pieces that are basically expanded ideas that I can't or don't want to make into full stories. They're also me trying out ideas that might turn into stories, or offshoots of my existing stories that might make their way into the actual storylines. Sometimes original characters of mine will appear that you are completely clueless about. I may make references to things you haven't heard of; lots of "Branches" won't make any sense at all. These Branches will all be centered in the Naruto world, but there will probably be some crossovers with various series every now and then. The name "Broken Branches" comes from the whole Leaf Village thing, with these stories being parts that have _branched _off of other stories but were _broken_ away from their main flows. Some branches will also be used to explain things in my stories that would have been awkward in the actual story, so I'll use author's notes to direct my reader to the Broken Branch that gives additional information. If you want to, feel free to give me feedback about this. If you think it's a good idea, that's great. If you think it's an awful idea and I can go fall in a pit of feces, then that's fine too. You can come with me.

Now that the introduction is over, please continue on to the first of many Broken Branches!


	2. A Peacetime Spar

Disclaimer: Feira Mikal is kind of mine, kind of not. Naruto is definitely not mine, nor are any of the other characters. 

The First Branch: A Peacetime Spar

"Come at me!" Mikal encouraged, the movement of his lips barely visible underneath his facemask. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura complied. Sasuke summoned a long rope of chakra, one end slightly unraveled with thick strands attached to the tips of his fingers. The rope surged towards Mikal, charging like a strange cross between a war-horse and a determined snake. Sakura took out a handful of senbon and, forming a few one-handed signs, threw her weapons at Team Seven's pseudo teacher. As they flew, they multiplied, the new senbon flickering like light bulbs before solidifying and continuing on their deadly path. Naruto held both his hands at his sides, palms up. Swirling blue energy formed in his curved hands, shaping into perfect, glowing spheres.

Team Seven attacked as one. A thin chakra barrier easily blocked Sakura's hail of shadow senbon, and the shadow constructs disappeared from existence in small clouds of smoke as the few real senbon fell to the ground. Sasuke's chakra rope was batted away with the back of Mikal's hand, and Sasuke called his creation back to himself. Naruto charged forward with a rasengan in each hand, reaching Mikal just as Sasuke's chakra rope began its retreat. Extending both his arms, he attacked intently. Mikal reached out his left hand over Naruto's right, twisting his fingers counterclockwise over the first rasengan. Light blue energy spilled from his fingers in a loose coil, meeting the swirling sphere of energy in Naruto's hand. The chakra orb seemed to sputter, and all of its energy suddenly followed the direction Mikal had twisted his hand, loosing its all-directions spin and disappearing in a thin swirl of energy. At the same time this happened Mikal grabbed Naruto's left wrist with his other hand, stopping the lethal attack it held mere inches from his abdomen. Mikal jerked his hand downwards, and loud crack was heard from Naruto's arm. The second rasengan disappeared along with Naruto's concentration; Mikal had clearly broken something. Probably several somethings. Bringing up his left leg, Mikal's boot met Naruto's stomach with crushing force, sending the young shinobi sailing backwards until his back crashed against a large tree-trunk.

Sparing only a brief glance for his injured teammate, Sasuke went back to the work he had started. Splitting his chakra rope, he attached a thin strand of chakra to each of his fingertips. He twitched his fingers experimentally and willed his energy constructs to attack. While Sasuke did this, Sakura formed a series a handsigns and withdrew a small stack of rectangular paper slips from her weapons pouch. Each slip had an intricate design laid in black ink covering its surface. She threw them towards Mikal, her eyes narrowed in concentration. The slips slowed in midair and formed a loose circle around the black-clad man, hanging in the air and forming an odd sort of sphere. Sasuke's chakra strands surged towards Mikal, moving much like snakes, seeking an energy source to latch onto. Mikal leapt out of the way of a group of attacking strands, noting that they were very similar to the type of chakra strings puppet masters used. He batted away two strings that attempted to attach themselves to him, waiting in his path. Four more strings came around behind him, and one snagged on his back for a moment before he snapped it off using his chakra. He attempted to leap out of reach of the strings, but crashed into an invisible chakra shield that was displayed as a web of crackling energy only for the brief moment he touched it. He landed lightly on the ground, crouched down low almost like he was kneeling to a superior. He began to speak a long train of words that Team Seven didn't understand.

"Arul kovach suci somi karuuvut. Marki zalko nanaim sikoushi maruh shoduk nargao. Lomi kakut sogihn maruss shitzao. Li'ai mau kinto zaj tovuga mamao rigats." He spoke in a low, flat voice, more like a monks chant than anything else. He shouted the last word, his eyes widening nearly as far as they could. "Chikgao!"

With the final word, the air around Mikal seemed to pulse. An invisible wave of energy surged out from him, hitting the wall of chakra Sakura had created. The paper slips bulged like an overfilled balloon, then bulged again before giving way and shooting out of their formation with the speed of thrown shuriken. Losing their momentum, they fluttered to the ground in a shower of paper. Mikal had no time to celebrate his success, as Sasuke's chakra strings attempted to snag him once again before the paper had even settled on the ground. Leaping out of the way, he was intercepted by four Naruto clones, each holding a rasengan in their right hand. A spinning kick dispelled two clones, a punch in the face got rid of the third, and a kunai in the stomach reduced the last to a cloud of smoke. Mikal reached out his right hand, fingers fully extended. Closing his hand and pulling towards himself, Naruto appeared out of the foliage surrounding the clearing the spar was being conducted in. He was being pulled as if a rope had been attached to the front of his shirt. When Naruto was mere feet away, Mikal pulled back his arm, and Naruto was met with a gloved fist in his face. He was sent flying backwards into Sakura, who had been approaching Mikal armed with a kunai in each hand. She dropped her kunai in order to catch Naruto, but the hard impact of their collision and the rough impact with the ground had both of them lying unmoving on the ground.

Sasuke called out to his to teammates, turning his head to check on them, and felt a foot in his stomach. He tried to take advantage of Mikal's nearness and maneuvered his chakra strings in front of him. A chop to the back of his neck made his concentration waver, and his chakra strings dissipated. Mikal caught him as he fell forward, a smile visible in his violet eyes. "Good job," he said quietly to his unconscious student. Slinging the young Uchiha over his shoulder, he carried Sasuke over to his downed comrades. Arranging them all at the base of a tree, he sat down in front of them on the soft, dry grass. They all leaned against the tree, seated next to each other with Naruto in the center and Sakura on his left, while Sasuke occupied the space to Naruto's right. Sakura and Sasuke's heads were leaned to the side and resting on Naruto's shoulders, while Naruto's head leaned to his right resting of top of Sasuke's head.

Mikal 'eye-smiled', much like Team Seven's usual teacher. "How cute," he said quietly, also like a certain porn-reading jounin. His eyes opened, crinkled at the edges. Even as he smiled, though, his eyes were sad. 'What I wouldn't give to be one of them again,' he thought nostalgically. And so, he sat and watched his team—which was his in more ways in one—sleep next to each other in the waning golden light of sunset. Beautiful, soulful indigo eyes that had once been the same color blue as the sky watched his younger self and his former teammates enjoy a moment of peace he had never experienced. Seeing his younger self shift and let out a soft snore, he wondered what this Naruto was thinking. Was _dreaming._ He would have sacrificed so much to have the chance he was giving to this Naruto—which he no longer was. He was Feira Mikal, and this was an Uzumaki Naruto that would never suffer the same fate as he had. The fact that Sasuke had been brought back from Orochimaru's clutches—by Mikal's own hand—changed the outcome of this world, this _war_ beyond recognition. Mikal pulled one of the black gloves off of his right hand, revealing a patchwork of scars and intricate sealing designs, a testament to his experiences with vicious torture and complex sealing. His marked fingers gently touched Naruto's skin, and he brushed a stray lock of hair out of his younger self's face. Naruto shifted and sighed, but did not wake. Withdrawing his hand, Mikal replaced his glove and watched his students—his friends, his siblings, his children—sleep peacefully. 'Enjoy it while it lasts, my friends,' he thought sadly. 'War is at our doorstep. This is one of the last moments of peace you'll have for a long time.' He turned his face towards the setting sun, guarding his eyes against its glare with a small amount of chakra. 'A very long time…'


	3. Oceanside Captive

The Second Branch: Oceanside Captive - Wrong! Why Am I Crying?

He vaguely tasted salt. No—he tasted salt _water_. For some reason, plain salt always tasted much different than salt water. He wondered if he was near the ocean. But he couldn't be—he heard no waves and smelled no brine. Even if he were inside somewhere and couldn't hear the ocean, if he were near enough to get salt water in his face he would definitely be able to catch a whiff of the tell-tale scent. He licked his chapped lips, and found more of the salty taste just above the left corner of his lip. He tried to raise his hand to touch it to his face, but found he couldn't. At least, not without a lot of pain.

"Augh—!" Naruto cried out as he felt white hot, stabbing pain go shooting up his arm. He dropped his arm back onto the ground, and he instantly regretted it. He let out another cry as a greater pain surged through his arm, leaving it aching and tingling uncomfortably. Naruto groaned in pain, breathing heavily and trying to recover. He hesitantly twitched his fingers, sending more brutal pain surging through his nerves. 'Okay…' he thought, beginning to take inventory of his injuries. 'That's definitely a broken arm.' He tried moving his other arm—only to find that this was an even worse idea than moving the first. He choked and gasped, hyperventilating as he tried to wait for the pain to recede. 'And this arm is also broken. But worse.' Naruto realized, with bitter satisfaction, that his lungs (and his ribs, too, most likely) were totally fine—he could breathe unhindered. Now for the legs—oops, that was a bad idea too.

"Guaaah—" he part whimpered, part moaned. His legs were both in much pain, but a different type than his arms. Naruto bit his lip hard, partly to keep from crying out and partly to try to get himself under control.

He opened his eyes, which he had been putting off, and found—to his utmost irritation—that his eyes couldn't handle the relatively dim lighting of the room. He quickly shut his eyes and whimpered, resolving to brutally murder whoever did this to him.

Another quick test confirmed that his neck was fine. He didn't even try sitting up. 'Okay,' he thought, staring at the ceiling. 'Two broken arms, heavily burned legs…um…" He quickly did a mental checklist of all the different aches and discomforts he felt. 'Chapped lips, dry mouth, sore throat—probable dehydration. Lingering pain in limbs, possible stab wound to shoulder and/or spleen—why is it _always_ the spleen? Soreness in abdomen, slight pain in chest, uh…very bad headache, overly sensitive vision, slight nausea…this sucks…runny nose and my head _itches_, dammit—very, very cold…where the hell am I?'


	4. The Time Traveler's Heart

The Third Branch: The Time Traveler's Heart

The Third Branch: The Time Traveler's Heart

"Sasuke…" Naruto said, a single tear leaking from one cerulean eye, leaving a clean streak in the dirt on his face. "If even you don't want me to…I will protect you." A small, sad smile crossed his face. It was a smile that seemed to hold all the happiness and sadness of the world at the same time. It was the smile of an unbreakable soul that had been beaten down too many times. It was brought out even more by the dirt on his tanned face and the blood coloring his lips, spatters of the red substance all over his face a testament to the battle he had fought. It was agonizing to see. "All of you." Naruto closed his eyes, slowly, and a tear slid out of his other eye like a raindrop signaling the beginning of a storm. "Because you all are precious to me." He opened his eyes, and his sad smile widened. "You are the reason I keep living. Everyone. I…" His smile quivered, and more silent tears spilled from his beautiful eyes. "I love you all…so much." He blinked, and more tears fell, becoming dirty with the grime on his face. "I had to watch you all die…" he continued, his voice pleading. "You were all ripped away from me!" he cried, the sad smile gone. "Please don't make me go through that again!" he wept, crying even harder. "Please!" he begged. "I can't lose you all again…" He drew in shallow, unsteady breathes. "I don't want to lose you again!"


	5. Worse For Wear

The Fourth Branch: Back In Time, Worse For Wear

The Fourth Branch: Back In Time, Worse For Wear

As Sasuke looked down at his fallen friend, rain dripping from his long bangs and soaking both boys to the bone, he briefly felt a flash of guilt for the hurt he was causing his teammate. Closing his eyes tightly, he brutally squashed the feeling and did his best to focus on the task at hand. Opening his eyes again, he found himself staring right at a pair of stunningly violet, _wide open_ eyes. He stood up with a strangled cry, stumbling and falling backwards in his haste to get away.

Naruto staggered to his feet, moving like he wasn't at home in his own body. His now-purple eyes shone with radiance rivaled only by celestial bodies, and were wide with awe as he examined himself. He held up his hands in front of his face, slowly curling and uncurling his fingers and looking as though such simple motor functions were a miracle. When Naruto finally looked at Sasuke, he seemed far more frightening than he had minutes before when he had been consumed by the Kyuubi's demonic chakra. His eyes were open wide in what seemed like childish awe, and his mouth was partly open with the edges turned up slightly in a mad little smile. Naruto looked completely and utterly insane.

"I remember your face," Naruto said, sounding like a child who had just made a great new discovery. His voice sounded like two people speaking in perfect harmony, him and another that sounded like an older version of himself. Naruto turned his body towards Sasuke, slowly, his arms still held up in front of him. He cocked his head to the side in a jerky motion, making a small crack as a tendon slid into place—it _sounded_, however, as if his neck had just been broken. "I remember your face," he repeated, in the same strange double-voice.

Naruto looked around him slowly, every movement awkward and erratic. "I remember this place," he said at last. He giggled madly at his unintentional rhyme, sounding like a demented child reminiscent of those seen in horror movies. Sasuke only sat on the ground and watched in horrified fascination. Naruto turned to look at him again. "I remember what you did," he said, the tiny smile on his face growing into a mad, wide-eyed grin.

Suddenly, Naruto rushed at Sasuke. The dark haired boy didn't even have time to make a sound before Naruto was crouched before him, both hands on his throat. Sasuke choked, feeling air being totally cut off. All the while he was forced to look at that mad smile on Naruto's face. Naruto kept his hands on Sasuke's neck for a few seconds before releasing him, only to grab onto both of his wrists before Sasuke even realized he had been temporarily freed. Twisting the other boy's arms behind his back, Naruto said, "I remember the promise I made."

Naruto yanked Sasuke's arms upward, dislocating the Uchiha's shoulders. "I remember her crying." Sasuke screamed in pain and whimpered, breathing heavily. He was spun around and kicked in the stomach, flying backwards to land on the stone of the valley floor. He blinked, and Naruto was standing above him, insane joy written all over his face. "I remember…" Naruto said, grabbing Sasuke by the neck and lifting him high in the air, "…_everything._"


	6. Spontaneous Poetry

The Fifth Branch: Spontaneous Poetry

"Hello, and goodbye! Say hi! Go and die—in a ditch!"

"Naruto, _what_ are you doing?" Sakura asked exasperatedly.

"Spontaneous rhyming poetry, coupled with interpretive dance," Naruto replied, dipping down low and sinking into the splits. "It's very hard."

"I bet," Sakura said, her eye twitching faintly.

"Come on Sakura, you should try it!"

"Try what?" came a new voice from behind Naruto. He yelped in surprise and fell over, landing flat on his face.

"Ino!" Sakura said. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much," the blond girl replied, smiling in her usual confident way. Her hands were on her hips, and her sun-bleached hair spilled over her shoulders, loose from its usual bun. She leaned over and peered at Naruto, her hair falling over her face. "Is there any reason you're eating dirt?"

"Mm nuff i'in furff," Naruto protested, his words muffled beyond recognition. Ino gained a rather odd expression.

"Sorry? Didn't quite catch that." Her voice was a mixture of confusion, exasperation, and amusement. Naruto groaned, got up, and spat out a mouthful of earth.

"I _said_, 'I'm not eating dirt,'" he repeated, mildly annoyed. "And I—"

"So, what were you guys doing?" Ino interrupted.

"Naruto was doing, not me." Ino turned and looked expectantly at Naruto. He huffed.

"Spontaneous rhyming and interpretive dance, if you must know."

"Really?" Ino said slightly incredulously. "Care to demonstrate?"

"Yes!" Naruto said eagerly, sounding much more cheerful than he had been seconds prior. "Yes, I would," he said in a quieter voice, not wanting to seem like an idiot in front of two pretty girls. He then crouched down low, his arms spread out wide. Both girls suddenly had a sinking feeling in their stomachs.

"A wave crashes through trees by the evening harbor," he said, making wave motions with his arms. "The pale moon rises in a lightless sky." Naruto straightened and raised his arms above him. "Night creatures play games with the wind." His arms waved side to side, and he seemed to—to jump a little, or skip, and tap his heels together. "And such a beautiful sight would make even a demon cry." He trailed one finger from the side of his eye down to his chin, to symbolize crying.

There was a moment of heavy, stuffy silence. Then, "Naruto, that is some of the worst poetry I've ever heard," Ino said, Sakura nodding her agreement.

"Well, it is totally spontaneous," he replied, looking offended. "Even the best poets need to edit, and plan, and make changes." Naruto truly seemed to be rather insulted. He had been trying hard to make cool, serious sounding poetry. Before the girls arrived, he had just been having fun, challenging himself.

"Okay," Sakura conceded, "Even if the poetry thing is excusable, that interpretive dance thing was absolutely _horrible_." Naruto gasped, seemed to fight himself for a moment, then stuck out his tongue rather childishly. Then, he turned on his heel and stomped off muttering about rude people who couldn't appreciate true art when they saw it.

Sakura and Ino turned to each other. For a moment, they were still. Suddenly, they cracked up and started laughing so hard they both fell over. They stopped after a while and struggled to regain their composure. Between breaths, Ino managed to gasp, "And men say…_we_have mood swings…" They both started laughing again, and didn't stop until they could barely breathe.


	7. UeRei and KikuHide

The Sixth Branch: UeRei and KikuHide

IDEA: Naruto sends his identical twin children back in time to them a second chance to live their lives and prevent the horrible future he's getting them away from. He had children because he got captured by Orochimaru, who turned him into a girl using forbidden techniques. Orochimaru used genjutsu of some sort to get Sasuke to rape Naruto, all the while remembering the rapes as strange dreams. Naruto is impregnated, and escapes shortly after he gives birth and regains some strength, taking his twin children with him. He seals away his children's sharingan away at birth to protect them. He releases the seal on the sharingan when he sends the kids back in time. Just before he sends his kids back he tells them about the things they need to know and wishes them luck. He sends his kids back to the day Sasuke left the village. Two possibilities:

-Female twins: Uematsu and Reihara; black hair and blue eyes

-Male twins: Hideyo and Kikuchi; blond hair and black eyes

**Title Ideas:**

Ninomai  
(The Same Mistake Again)

Aratamete  
(Another Time, Over Again)

Ichikarayarinaosu  
(All Over Again)

Kadou no Toki  
(Vortex of Time)

Vortex Style, the First: Living Mirror Technique

Vortex Style, the Second: Twin Mimicry Technique

Vortex Style, the Third: Soul Tracking Technique

Vortex Style, the Fourth: Mind Meld Technique

Vortex Style, the Fifth: Spiral Prison Technique

Vortex Style, the Sixth: Twin Dragon Technique, Fire (/Wind/Earth/Water/Lightning/Shadow/Blade) Variant

Vortex Style, the Seventh: Web of Fear Technique

Vortex Style, the Eighth: Grand Scrying Technique

Vortex Style, the Ninth: First/Second Storm Summoning Technique (First summons Uematsu, Second summons Reihara)

Vortex Style, the Tenth: Sky Path Technique

Vortex Style, the Eleventh: Marathon Technique

Vortex Style, the Twelfth: Final Stasis Technique

Vortex Style, the Thirteenth: Vulpine Summoning Technique; (Kyasasu, Mobin, Anorin, Sakemi, Kuyoucho, Innda, Morutazo)

Well, what do you think? Sorry to those of you who prefer Hideyo and Kikuchi, but I've already started writing with Uematsu and Reihara and I really like them. So, sorry to the boys, but your female counterparts have already won. Anyway, I know I shouldn't be writing new things when I have stories already started that have fans already, but hey, I'm fickle when it comes to my stories. But don't you worry, I have all summer. I'll get to my other stories. I'll post what I have written on this idea once I can figure out a damn title. By the way, when the girls refer to numbered techniques and the Marathon and Stasis Techniques, they're referring to my little Vortex techniques up above. For the time being you're welcome to try to figure out what they do. In case you're curious, this is kind of what I do when I have an idea for a new story. I write down information and ideas so I don't forget, and all that. I'm including this to give you a kind of preview. Don't worry, explanations for certain things will be included in the story, just not at the beginning. Anyway, I'm off to write fanfics and eat chocolate. Please vote on a title! Jaa ne!

P.S. I don't get why some of the first line gets repeated at the top whenever you convert a Word document into fanfiction documents. It's really annoying.

P.P.S. I hate . Very, very much. It won't let me underline, add line breaks, or keep more than fifteen documents, which is stupid. If you want to edit something, you have to re-load the document, make your changes, then replace the chapter with the new document. I hate life...


	8. Toki no Kadou

Toki no Kadou

(Vortex of Time)

Chapter One: Arrival of the Sisters Uzumaki

"So, should we interfere before father gets that nasty chidori scar on his chest?" Reihara asked her sister as they leapt through the trees, headed towards the Valley of the End at the top speed their weary bodies could manage. Uematsu gave her a long, flat look.

"Right. Stupid question," Reihara answered herself.

"I'm glad you realize that," Uematsu said dryly. She then ruined her calm, composed image when she gave an indignant squawk and narrowly avoided getting her head ripped off by a tree branch. The large metal canister strapped to her back nearly overbalanced her as she tried to re-orientate herself.

"Whoa!" Reihara cried. "You okay?" she said, concerned for her sister's welfare.

"Eyes on the trees, eyes on the trees!" Uematsu shouted, and Reihara turned her head forward just in time to avoid slamming into a large, knotted tree. "Goodness, be careful!" the very slightly older twin admonished.

"Fine advice coming from the one who almost got decapitated!" Reihara snapped, shocked from both her sister's near miss and her own.

"Hey!" Uematsu cried, ignoring her sister's rudeness. "Watch out!" Reihara yelped and dodged a wicked looking branch that had nearly impaled her.

"Danger! Front and center!" the younger twin warned, reaching out a hand and grabbing her sister's forearm. She yanked Uematsu out of the way and sent them both falling onto a net of branches, which broke under their combined weight.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhh…!" they yelled together as they fell.

"Well, that was certainly exciting!" Uematsu said, looking and sounding a bit too cheerful for someone who had just nearly met a rather nasty, scary, and somewhat dismal end to her young life. "Falling several hundred feet plummeting towards the ground and imminent death before we managed to use kunai and nin-wire to get near a tree just in time to save our sorry skins. Then we had to _run up_ that tree for ten minutes—very tall tree it was, the branches started up real high—and now we're here, leaping through trees again." Uematsu said all this while rather carefully looking at nothing but her footing and the plant life in front of her. Reihara sent her a brief look that was mostly annoyance mixed with a little hurt.

"I know what happened. You don't have to rub it in," she said grumpily.

"Oh, don't be such a downer. I'm not heckling you. Let's just both be more careful, okay?"

Reihara fixed her eyes firmly to the trees and said, "Okay."

"Right then!" Uematsu crowed, punching the air. "We're off to break up our parents!"

"In a fight."

"Yes, in a fight, of course."

"…Did you _have_ to put it like that, Uematsu?"

"Yes. Yes I did." Reihara groaned and changed her direction, angling her next jump slightly to the right.

"This way, Uematsu, this way now!" she called to her sister, who was still going straight ahead at top speed.

"_Right!_" the elder of the two said, and she changed her course as well, following at her sister's heels. "Going this way now. Right."

"Smart one," Reihara said sarcastically.

"Oi. That's my insult," Uematsu warned.

"Doesn't matter. We're twins."

"What kind of backwards reasoning is that? There's no logic at all! Heck, that reasoning is _sideways!_ Hey, Reihara! Wait up!"

"Sasuke!" Naruto growled. "Stop being an idiot! You—" he was cut off when an enormous gust of wind blew him off the water and into the air. Sasuke was knocked off his feet as well, and they both landed on the hard rock of the valley floor, looking around wildly for what had caused the sudden gust of wind. They both knew it couldn't have been a natural occurrence; they were in a sheltered area, and no wind that strong could have made it down to where they were. Plus, the chances of a wind that strong just _happening_ to hit both them and send them onto solid ground (instead of falling in water) were downright ridiculous.

"Who's there!" Sasuke cried angrily. He had sensed chakra in that wind! And wait…there had to have been two sources, so there were two attackers! If a single gust of wind had blown them both away, he and Naruto would have landed on the lakeshore with their bodies relatively parallel. Instead, they were blown towards each other…and the general direction their feet were pointing was where the wind had come from! Sasuke sat up and quickly threw several kunai to where he guessed the attacks had originated. The weapons disappeared into foliage, rustling a few plants and doing nothing else apparent except showing that no one was there. He inwardly cursed when he realized he had just used up the last of the kunai he had stolen from Naruto's weapons pouch. "Show yourselves!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the valley.

To Sasuke's surprise—he hadn't really expected whoever was attacking them to do what he told them—two people did, in fact, show themselves. They were girls, about sixteen or seventeen, and they were beautiful. They also looked like they had just emerged from the finishing battle of a full-scale shinobi war. Their straight black hair was falling out of their high ponytails, and dirt and blood streaked their elegant faces. The girls' eyes were exotically shaped, filled with mischievous intelligence, and a stunning cerulean color, seeming to reflect all they saw. Both girls were dressed in sturdy black skin-tight shirts and pants with dull black plates sewn onto their clothes. The fabric was ripped and stained in places, and the armor bore cracks and streaks of dried blood. There were tears in their clothes, and the woman on the right had a large open wound on her side that was for some reason not bleeding. On their backs were two sheathed swords each—like the rest of their attire, the sheathes and hilts were black.

Sasuke didn't really think much of it, but these two girls looked an awful lot like a pair of modern Uchiha warriors, save for their bright blue eyes.

The two girls were standing next to each other with their arms crossed over their chests, wearing identical smirks. Naruto and Sasuke both noticed that their teeth were unusually white and pointed. "Well isn't this cute," the one on the right said. Her voice was smooth and rich, rather low for a young woman and pleasant to listen to.

"A couple of miniature ninja trying to act like men," the other said in a voice identical to the first. "What shall we do, dear sister? Should we kill them?" The second looked sideways at the first, her smirk widening.

"Oh, I'm afraid not, my sister. Our dearly departed father would be _most_ displeased with us if we slew Konoha ninja. These two especially." The first looked to her sister, and one of her eyebrows twitched very slightly.

Uematsu and Reihara were having a very hard time keeping themselves from grinning like fools (rather, like their blond idiot of a father). They were just messing with the poor boys, of course. Their faces were hilarious! Sasuke looked positively furious, and Naruto was gaping stupidly at the sisters.

"What shall we do with them, then?" Reihara said theatrically, putting a gloved hand on her sister's armored shoulder.

"I think the fifth technique would do quite nicely, don't you?" Uematsu replied slyly, mirroring her sister and grasping her shoulder.

"I do agree, and I be—" Reihara cut herself off and dodged a stream of fire that blew through the area where her head had been a second before. Uematsu had leapt away in a similar fashion, landing lightly on the surface of the lake and sending out barely a ripple on the glassy water. Sasuke was crouched on the ground, an angry look on his face and his hand held up to his mouth. A small bit of smoke hung in front of his face, further incriminating him as the source of the heated attack. Naruto, finally coming to his senses, got to his feet and brought up his arms to form an altogether too familiar hand sign. Alarm bells went off inside the sisters' heads, and they shared a quick glance before breaking apart and attacking the boys.

Reihara leapt towards Naruto, grabbing his wrists in a bruising hold and pulling his hands apart before he could gather his chakra. Bringing up a leg, she slammed an armored knee into Naruto's unprotected stomach. He almost gagged, but suppressed the reflex and tried to jerk his arms from Reihara's hold. Her grip was iron, and he couldn't pull away. She kneed him again, twisted his arms painfully, and somehow got behind him while maintaining her hold on his wrists. She placed her foot against his back and pulled hard on his arms much like Sasuke had done to the sound ninja during the second phase of the Chunin Exams. Naruto cried out in pain, and twin pops could be heard. Reihara blinked. She didn't expect his shoulders to be dislocated quite that easily. However, she quickly shrugged off her surprise and delivered a punishing blow to the base of Naruto's neck. He fell forward slowly, darkness clouding his vision. She wrapped an arm around his middle just in time to prevent him from falling on his face. Reihara glanced sideways to check on how her sister was doing.

As her sister had leapt towards Naruto, Uematsu rushed at Sasuke, her sapphire eyes glittering dangerously. Sasuke tried to stand up before she reached him, but she was faster. Grabbing the front of his shirt, she punched him viciously in the stomach. He coughed and tried to get himself loose, but Uematsu grabbed both his wrists in her free hand and started kneeing his torso. His body jerked with each impact, and he choked and grunted while closing his eyes against the pain. Suddenly Uematsu's hand let go of his shirt, and his arms were raised above his head. Her now free hand wrapped around the front of Sasuke's throat, suffocating him. He struggled against her, and managed to deliver a few weak kicks to her armored body before he passed out. Uematsu let go of his throat, lowering the unconscious boy until his legs were bent and his knees were brushing the ground.

Reihara gave Uematsu a reproving look as she approached her and her blond cargo. Uematsu was dragging Sasuke behind her over the rocky ground, carelessly letting him get bumped and scraped by every little obstacle in her path. "That was a little harsh, don't you think?" she said.

"Come on," Uematsu replied dubiously. "Look what you did to Naruto. You dislocated the poor boy's shoulders! The worst I did to Sasuke was bruise him a little." She jerked her head towards the black-haired boy. "Anyway, don't you think it was a bit too easy to take them out?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that these two went down real quick. From what father told us, this was quite an epic battle." Reihara looked thoughtful.

"I suppose that we're a lot more skilled than them. Plus, they've been fighting for a while and wearing each other out."

"We're worn out too, though. Today we've fought in a _war_ against various classes of shinobi—including S-class—lost our father, gone back twenty-three years in time, and then we raced here at top speed, not to mention the whole tree fiasco. I'd say that pretty much qualifies as 'worn out', don't you? So shouldn't it have been harder to take them down?" Uematsu reasoned.

"Yeah, but they used a lot of borrowed power during this fight that they didn't have a chance to use against us. I think Sasuke looked like he was about to activate the curse seal," Reihara said thoughtfully.

"Which we still need to get rid of." Reihara groaned.

"I think I'll just force Grandpa Ero-senin to do that," she replied. Uematsu grinned at her. "Now, shall we go?" Reihara suggested. She jumped over to the top of a large pile of rocks, holding Naruto in her arms and looking at her sister expectantly.

"Hey Reihara!" Uematsu called, slinging Sasuke over her shoulder. "Don't forget the family scroll!"

"Whoops!" the younger sister said sheepishly, dropping Naruto's body on the ground and leaping away towards the foliage Sasuke had attacked before she and her sister made their appearance. Uematsu sighed and collected Naruto's unconscious form, holding him against her side with her armed looped around his stomach. He and Sasuke looked like corpses, limp in her grasp.

Reihara appeared in front of her, grunting a little and holding the large metal canister in her arms Uematsu had carried on the way to the Valley; it was a little longer than her torso, and about twice as wide. "Sorry," she said, grinning. "Little bit of a blonde moment there."

Uematsu looked at her strangely. "Your hair is _black_," she said.

"Yeah, yeah. My hair may not be blond, but half my brain is."

"Genetics don't work that way!" Uematsu protested.

"Oh, feh. So, can you carry both of them?" Reihara said, gesturing to Sasuke and Naruto's limp bodies.

"Uh huh. You sure you can carry the scroll? You seem to be having trouble with it." Instead of being grateful for the concern, Reihara glared at her sister.

"It's essentially a large block of very dense wood, and the metal case is really heavy and thick, too. You're just carrying a couple of water-bags with bones." Uematsu gave her a long look. "What?"

"You're not boosting your muscles with chakra, are you?" the older twin asked after a moment.

Reihara, to her credit, had the decency to look somewhat sheepish. "No…" she mumbled. Then Uematsu felt a small pulse of chakra, and her sister straightened, looking far less put upon. "That's much better! Sorry for the blonde moment. Again."

Uematsu only sighed. Then she looked up, feeling the beginnings of raindrops on her face.

"Oh look, it's raining," she said rather needlessly.

"Hn. So it is. Say, do you think we should wait for Uncle Scarecrow to get here?" Reihara said, squinting as the rain started to pick up.

"We'd have to explain a few things, then. You remember how suspicious he was."

"Is," Reihara corrected. "He's alive in this time." She turned her face away from the sky and looked at her sister. The rain was falling hard, and their hair was starting to stick to their backs and faces. Their black battle-suits were also clinging a little closer to their bodies than normal.

"Right, is," Uematsu amended, glancing crossly at her wet bangs. They were beginning to cover her right eye, and both her arms were occupied with Sasuke and Naruto. "By the way, speaking of explanations, what are we gonna say when we're asked for our names? We can't really say 'Uzumaki Reihara and Uzumaki Uematsu!' They'd lock us up."

"Lock us up? Why would they—? Right. Stupid question. Sorry."

"You have got to stop doing that, Reihara. People will start wondering if you're related to Naruto."

"But I am!" Reihara protested.

"Yes, but no one is supposed to _know _that, remember? Smart one."

"Thank you. I _am_ smart."

"Idiot. You missed the sarcasm."

"I purposefully overlooked it."

"You did not," Uematsu rebuked.

"I so did," Reihara said.

"We are _not_ starting one of these juvenile did/didn't arguments. We're sixteen, by the gods. And—" Uematsu froze mid-sentence, and Reihara stiffened.

"I sense Uncle Scarecrow. Should we run and try to beat him to Konoha, or stay and lie through our teeth?"

"Run to Konoha. We suck at lying."

"Right. Let's—oh shit." Reihara and Uematsu turned around to see the very person they had just agreed to avoid. He was tall, thin, and had only one eye visible. His clothes were dark with moisture and were clinging to his frame. Water was weighing down his normally gravity-defying silver hairstyle. A small dog was standing in front of him, wearing a blue vest and a ninja headband.

"Oh, um…hey," Reihara said hesitantly, awkwardly waving at the new arrival around the metal canister she was holding in her arms. "We were just…um. Uh…"

"Hello, Hatake-san!" Uematsu chirped, as if she _wasn't_ carrying two of the ex-anbu's unconscious, beat-up students in her arms. "We were just about to bring these two back to Konoha! But, um, since you're here, I guess…you can…do that…yourself…if you want…to?" she said unsurely.

Kakashi only narrowed his eyes—rather, his _eye_—at the suspicious looking sisters. As he had raced towards the Valley of the End and his fight-happy students, Pakkun had announced that he smelled two more people entering the area of the battle. According to his faithful nin-dog, the new ninja smelled strongly of blood, metal, fire, and—for lack of a better word—forest. Kakashi had been prepared for many things upon his arrival to the valley: one or both of his students gone, one or both of them dead, both still fighting each other, or even fighting against and alongside other sound or leaf ninja that had entered the fray. Instead, he found his students—of all things—merely _unconscious_ in the arms of a stunningly beautiful woman arguing with another, identical woman carrying a large metal canister, both women wearing very modernized Uchiha-style armor and looking like they had just fought in a damn _war_. Needless to say, _not_ what he expected.

The second major surprise of the minute was the amount of chakra the girls had in their bodies. For elite ninja, as these two appeared to be, it was…pathetically small; less than Sakura had, for goodness sake! How these two managed to take out his students—Naruto the determined chakra powerhouse and Sasuke the skilled number one rookie of his graduating class—was beyond Kakashi. They barely had enough chakra for four kage-bunshin between the both of them!

"Hey, Kakashi," Pakkun drawled at his feet. "I'll just be goin' now…" Kakashi nodded, and the tracker-dog disappeared a small cloud of smoke.

"Who are you?" he asked the strangers coldly, his body tense and a hand hovering over his weapons pouch. Just because these girls were low on chakra, it didn't mean they weren't dangerous. One merely needed to look at Rock Lee to know that having no chakra by no means meant no danger. Underestimating one's opponent had been the downfall of scores of powerful ninja, and Kakashi didn't intend to have his life end in such a way—especially when two of his students could quite possibly be in mortal danger.

"I recommend the tenth technique," the one carrying his students said to the other, ignoring his words. The second girl glared at the one who had spoken, shifting the large metal canister from her arms to her back, settling a thick brown strap across her armored chest.

"I don't have enough chakra for a vortex technique. I don't know about you, but for me the chakra from the Marathon Technique and the extra that father gave us is just about to run out. The Final Stasis Technique is almost gone, too." The first girl scowled.

"Good point. Now that you mention it, I'm almost out as well. Think we should get off these rocks before we collapse and kill ourselves, taking these two along with us?"

"Yes I do, dear sister." Kakashi blinked once as the girls jumped down from the top of the rock pile, landing lightly and gracefully on the hard ground. So they were sisters. Twins, obviously. He would have figured out that earlier if he had spared it any kind of thought—however, he had been a bit too pre-occupied by the dangerous situation.

"Hatake-san," the girl holding his students said calmly. "We mean no harm to you, your comrades, or your village. Neither my sister or I have enough chakra to continue on for much longer, and we have no wish to fight you." She walked forward several steps, and Kakashi lowered himself into a taijutsu stance, a kunai ready in each hand. However, the girl only crouched down, gently placing Naruto's prone body on the ground. She shifted Sasuke off of her shoulder, and laid him down next to Naruto. Straightening, she returned to her sister's side. "I'm almost out," she said, keeping her eyes on Kakashi as she spoke to her sister. "You'll have to explain to him abou—gck!!" She made an odd sound in her throat, doubling over and bringing a hand to her wounded side. It had started to bleed for no apparent reason, and the crimson liquid was quickly staining the cloth of her glove and streaming down her side and her left leg. She coughed thickly, blood spilling from her mouth and running down her chin. Various cuts on her face suddenly let out blood, coloring her dirty face with fresh liquid. The arm that wasn't holding her side fell limp. She staggered backwards, making a face against her sudden pain.

"Uematsu!" her sister cried in alarm. She caught her sister, who Kakashi now knew to be called Uematsu, in her slender arms. She knelt down slowly, bringing her sister with her. She gently cradled her sister's head, keeping Uematsu in a protective embrace.

"Reihara…" Uematsu croaked. Kakashi made a mental note of the new name, watching the sisters' actions attentively. "Tell him quickly, you can't hold on very much longer…" With that, her sapphire blue eyes closed and she went limp in her sister's arms. The newly identified Reihara narrowed her eyes and her expression hardened. She laid her sister's unconscious body of the ground and turned her head towards Kakashi. She took the metal cylinder off her back and set it on the ground beside her.

"Hatake-san," she said flatly, her eyes hard. "My sister and I are both in critical condition. The only reason we are still alive is because our father supplied us with a large amount of chakra just before he died, keeping our bodies in a sort of stasis. My sister Uematsu's supply of chakra has just run out, and as you probably heard, mine will do the same soon." Reihara spoke quietly, keeping her eyes on Kakashi. "We came here to ensure that Uchiha Sasuke did not ally himself with Orochimaru, who is an enemy of ours. We made sure we did no lasting damage to these two," she gestured to Sasuke and Naruto on the ground in front of her, "…so they should require little to no medical assistance. I do recommend you restrain Uchiha-san, as he should be waking up soon." Reihara brought her left hand to face, pressing against her skin and clenching her eyes as if in pain. "I request that you call those medics in the bushes out to help my sister and I before we die. I doubt even your best experts could question a pair of corpses, plus I think that my sister and I would not be opposed to allying ourselves to Konoha. We—" she gasped, and Kakashi could barely see her pupils dilate. She brought her right hand to her left shoulder, clenching it tightly. She shifted her legs, and—while gritting her teeth against the pain—brought her right leg out from under her, slowly straightening it out slightly in front of her. Reihara had begun to hyperventilate, and Kakashi sensed she had next to no chakra left. Looking at him through half-lidded eyes, she swayed, still kneeling. "W-we…" she tried to say. Reihara fell back, landing next to Uematsu with a small thud.

Kakashi wasted no time in leaping forward to check on his students, signaling for the small medic team that had accompanied him to reveal themselves. "Sasuke and Naruto are fine," he told them. "Go take care of the girls." He began to form a series of hand-signs for a jutsu that would ensure Sasuke would not wake up at an inconvenient time.

"B-but sir! They're enemy nin!" one medic protested. Kakashi fixed him with a glare, even as the other three medics rushed past him to treat the girls.

"Enemy nin that have just prevented Sasuke from getting to Orochimaru, and who are in great need of medical help. And like that Reihara girl said, you can't question a corpse. Now get to it."

"Y-yes sir!" the medic managed to force out under the weight of Kakashi's killing intent. He rushed over to join his fellows in the healing process. Kakashi shook his head and continued with his hand-signs. When he had completed those, he placed his hand on Sasuke's forehead. A blue glow grew on his hand and seeped into Sasuke's skin. The boy stirred, but did not wake.

"Kakashi-san!" one of the medics, a woman, shouted in alarm. "I think you should come over here!" Kakashi was kneeling next to her in less than a second.

"What is it?" he said urgently.

"It's these girls…I don't know how they're alive! They have almost no chakra, and they're both suffering multiple fractures, bruises, and lacerations. They should have bled out by now! They're both suffering from internal bleeding, and look at this," she said, sounding a little panicked. She pointed to Uematsu's side, which was covered in blood and was being attended to with one healer's seemingly undivided attention. "She should have been dead from this," the medic said. "And here," she pointed to Reihara, who had been flipped so her back could be reached by the healers, "…look." The medic pointed to a very long, nasty-looking gash that had penetrated the armored plate on the girl's back. "Normal people would have been paralyzed the second they got this. Her spinal cord's been cut, and partially healed."

The medic looked up at Kakashi with weary eyes. "We have to get these two to Tsunade-sama. Without the proper medical facilities or a lot of skill, these two aren't going to make it much longer. We can put them in a brief stasis, like they were in before, but there isn't a lot more we can do."

"I understand. I'll carry Sasuke, so I can make sure that he doesn't try anything funny even if he wakes up. You carry Naruto," Kakashi said, pointing to one medic. "You carry that Reihara girl, you carry, uh…Uematsu," he pointed to two more healers, "…and you carry that odd metal canister of theirs. It could be important." All of the medics rushed to retrieve the person—or in one case, object—they had been assigned.

"Is everyone accounted for?" Receiving a collection of nods from the small team, he said, "Good. Let's move out."

Ah ha ha ha. This has been written for ages, but I've decided to post it because Broken Branches finally got a loyal reviewer. Willowleaf2560, this is dedicated to you.

I'm off to do homework, work on Fullmetal Professor and To Be Young Again, and eat breakfast because I haven't yet. Jaa ne!


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